Experiment
by Mrs Ravel
Summary: Vandameer Craven is experimenting... with the dead.
1. Prologue

_**Author's Note: This is my first fanfiction so I hope it's ok. Enjoy!**_

It was 1st of January 2012, in Dublin, Ireland and Cleric Vandameer Craven was experimenting. Walking through the city, shovel in one hand, parchment in the other, would have looked rather strange if their had been any passers-by. But this was New Year's night. Vandameer had chosen the perfect time of year for this little "experiment". He self-conciously glanced around and turned down Clareville Grove and down the street on which Glasnevin cemetery was.

It was huge. Over 1,500,000 people were buried there. Only?, he thought. He sighed and looked around. The cemetery looked rather scary at night, in the dark, deserted, no one to hear you scream. He musn't get distracted. There was at job at hand and high priest Auron Tenebrae would not be pleased if Craven returned to the temple empty handed. Craven skimmed the few rows of headstones in front of him and when he didn't find what he was looking for, he moved on the the next row, and the next, and the next, and the next. Several hundred rows later, Craven found what he was looking for. It was the headstone of a very specific person, and it read;

Here lies Saphire Pleasant, deceased daughter of Fierce Waters and Skulduggery Pleasant.

Victim of war.

Loved and missed by many, forever in our hearts.

Sapphire Shadows - 1836-1850

Craven smiled. Auron Tenebrae would be pleased.

_**Well? how was it? I know. I had to guess the age of Sapphire, the name and gender of her and also her mothers name... The next few chapters will be longer, but this is kind of a prologue. Please review it! ;)**_


	2. Chapter 1

_**To those of you who read my last little fanfiction post will know who stupid I was asking where Cemetery Road was in Dublin. Lol. Thank you to the very helpful people who kindly showed me the error of my ways. This chapter would be lost without you guys. Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a little review, pretty please xx**_

Chapter 1:

Ghastly slowly lowered himself into one of the many armchairs in Skulduggery Pleasant's living room, and drank from his mug of tea as he watched Skulduggery pace back and forth, back and forth, across the living room.

"She'll be home soon." Ghastly remarked, to break the silence.

"She said she would. Yet, that was over an hour ago and she was just going to the shop! So tell me, Mr. Bespoke, how does it take a 17 year old girl an hour to walk a 30 minute journey to a shop to get milk?" Skulduggery's voice was rising with frustration.

"Skulduggery, what has gotten into you? You are clearly overreacting. Maybe she met someone, got caught up in conversataion and forgot to call you. Things happen, you shoudn't worry about her. What you should really worry about is yourself. You seem to be very tense and easily agitated of late, and I certainly am worried."  
"It's nice to know you care Ghastly." Skulduggery sighed and slumped into an armchair across the room from his friend.

"I've just been getting a strange feeling in my bones lately," the skeleton detective continued,"you know? Like something really BAD is going to happen. I can't shake the feeling, no matter how hard I try."

"Yeah..." Ghastly muttered, deep in thought. Skulduggery noticed the sudden change in his friends mood and sat bolt upright.

"What is it?" Skulduggery asked.

"Hm? Oh eh, well it's just that you're not the first person to say that to me today." Ghastly said.

"Oh yes?" Skulduggery said, clearly intrigued.

"Well," Ghastly began,"at the last elders meeting we had, this morning's meeting that is, Erskine Ravel said exactly the same thing, that he had a fishy feeling inside, that something wasn't right. He..." Skulduggery's mobile ringing cut Ghastly off mid-sentence.

"It's Valkyrie." Skulduggery said. "I've got to take it."

"Of course." Ghastly nodded. Skulduggery answered the call and said frantically into the receiver,"Hello? Where are you? I've been so worried!" Ghastly heard several muffled words spoken from the other side of the phone and Skulduggery stiffened. "What? By who?!" the skeleton said, with much anger in his voice. "Where?" more muffled words. "I'm on my way." Skulduggery concluded the conversation and hung up. "I'm sorry Ghastly." he said. "I've got to go. Valkyrie's being followed by someone, just a few streets away. Of course she's not worried, but she's young. She might need help."

"Of course. I've got to get back to the Sanctuary anyway. Duty calls." Ghastly stood up and he and Skulduggery walked into the hallway. Skulduggery grabbed his revolover, hat and gloves from the table near the front door. He stuck his hat on his head, his relover in the inside pocket of his jacket and activated his facade. He opened the frot door and he and Ghastly stepped outside. Skulduggery turned back to lock the door as Ghastly continued to his car.

"I'll call you if we need you, Elder Bespoke." Skulduggery said, smirking as he said that "oh so official" Sanctuary title.

"Good luck." Ghastly said, opening his car door.

"Pah!" Skulduggeyr said,"Luck? Who needs luck?"


	3. Chapter 2

_**I don't think this chapter is that good, but I tried to make it longer than the last one. Enjoy, and as always, leave a review please ;) xx**_

Chapter 2:

Skulduggery, with his façade still activated, swung his car up onto the kerb and cut off the engine. He took a swift look around the dark empty street and, to his dismay, saw no sign of Valkyrie. He quietly opened the car door and stepped out onto the road. He swiftly pulled his revolver from his jacket pocket and closed the car door, locking it as he did so. He held the gun out in front of him, moving slowly forward, his steps echoing off the dark, quiet houses that surrounded him. All was quiet, so quiet that it made him feel uneasy. He saw an entrance to a narrow alleyway near the end of the street. He advanced towards it cautiously. When he got close enough to the entrance, he put his back up against the wall and listened. When he was sure it was safe, he swiftly pivoted himself around so that he was looking down the alleyway, his gun still held stiffly in front of him.

There was no one there. He sighed and lowered his gun slightly. Now he was worried. He turned on his heel and walked back to the car. He gave one desperate glance around the dark street and opened the car door and climbed in. He pulled his phone out from the inside pocket of his jacket and noticed, of course, three missed calls from Ghastly. He sighed and typed his friend's number in and hit the green button.

_**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx **_

There was commotion in the hallway outside Ghastly's chambers at the Sanctuary and Skulduggery Pleasant burst through the door followed by many Sanctuary officials shouting about "not having an appointment" this and "pressing matters" that. Ghastly waved them all away, kindly explaining that he had been expecting Skulduggery for a while. A few of the Sanctuary officials threw the skeleton detective wary looks, but they left anyway. "Come in," Ghastly said. "I have some news for you." Skulduggery gladly entered and sat down in the chair opposite Ghastly's desk. He interlocked his fingers on his lap and twiddled his thumbs around. Ghastly closed the door and walked to the chair behind his desk, sitting down slowly. He opened an important looking case file in front of him and pulled out several sheets of paper. Ghastly sighed ad looked up at Skulduggery. "This is now an official Sanctuary investigation." He said. Skulduggery sat forward slightly and began to speak for the first time he had entered the room. "Why?" he began," I could have handled this myself, you know I could."  
"That's just the problem." Ghastly said, with a serious tone to his voice," As the Elder's of the Irish Sanctuary, Madame Mist, Erskine Ravel and I came to an agreement that this investigation should be left to the Sanctuary for several reasons. One, there have been several disappearances like this before and they were very serious, and two; we don't want a repeat of the past Skulduggery. You are no longer a part of this investigation."

_**Well, how was it? I hope this chapter was better than the last one. Thank you guys so much for reading! Don't forget to leave a little review, and I promise to update this ASAP **____** xx**_


	4. Chapter 3

_**Here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it.**_

Chapter 3:

Skulduggery sat in the dingy little café just a few blocks away from his house, thinking over what Ghastly had said. At the time, Skulduggery had been unsure how to feel about the plan the Sanctuary had made concerning him, without consulting him. But now, he saw their reasoning. It was a good plan. Wasn't it? They would catch the kidnapper easier that way, he hoped. He had ordered coffee and a bun, but of course being a skeleton, even with a façade on, he couldn't eat or drink them. He sighed and threw a fiver onto the table and got up and left. He stuck his hands in his pockets and started walking down the street, walking past several shops as he went. Even though it was only 5 o'clock in the evening, it was getting rather dark. Everything was normal in the world around him, but little did they know that the world was definitely far from normal.

_**xxxx**_

Ghastly sat in his chambers and sighed. He didn't like the decision he had made with regards to the investigation. He was being disloyal and even though it was good for Skulduggery, a part of Ghastly still felt pretty bad. He flipped open the case file in front of him on the desk and he tried to read what was there, but he couldn't get his eyes to focus. He sat back in his chair and closed his eyes for a few moments and then decided it was finally time for a cup coffee. He stood up, cast a glance at the case file and left the room locking the door behind him.

_**xxxx**_

Erskine Ravel smiled. Thing were going well. They investigation would soon be officially underway and everyone was happy. Well, mostly happy. Madame Mist never conveyed any emotion on the outside, but Erskine was sure on the inside she was a whirlwind of mixed up emotions and she had cleverly trained herself to contain it all within herself. They had come up with some good arrangements for the investigation, arrangements that guaranteed them an easy catch of Valkyrie's kidnapper.

Valkyrie.

They were all so worried about her. Sure, she could handle herself well and was pretty feisty at times, but that didn't stop them from worrying and it didn't stop the kidnapper. It had to be someone who knew her, knew how she would react, and knew her skills. Someone they all knew. But who?

_**xxxx**_

_**Please leave a review, thanks xx JJ**_


	5. Chapter 4

_**Here you go xx**_

Chapter 4:

No matter how hard Valkyrie struggled, she couldn't break free of whatever material it was that bound her. Her magic didn't work, someone had taken her ring, and she couldn't hear nor see a thing. The only thing she did know was she that she was bound, gagged and blindfolded in an empty, stone room. She couldn't tell if there was any light on the other side of the blindfold and she hadn't heard a sound in what seemed like several days. She had no means of telling the time and that annoyed her. All her belongings had been taken. The last thing she could remember was that she was getting milk for Skulduggery and on the way home she was attacked, probably by a man judging by the strength, in a little alleyway a few streets from Skulduggery's house and the attacker had knocked her out, and the next thing she was harshly thrown into the dark room and that is where she had been for the past several days, and would probably remain there for several more days to come. She hadn't noticed it before, but she was very thirsty and her stomach was so empty it might have converted her to cannibalism. She lashed out with her foot and expected to hit stone wall, but instead she hit something softer and whatever it was fell backwards to the ground with a soft _thud. _Her heart began to race and she sat still for a few moments trying to calm herself and still her racing heart. Then, when she was calm enough, she moved slowly towards the strange object, whatever it was, and when she got close enough she reached out her bound hands to touch it and was surprised to feel material beneath her fingertips. She moved her hands slowly around the thing in front of her and her hands came across something cold and smooth. It was human flesh... She leapt back with fear when she realised what it was that was in the strange stone room with her. A person. A _dead_ person! She would have been in tears by now, but she'd had nothing to drink for ages and she was sure there was no fluid left at all in her system. Her mind was reeling and she had to lean against the wall to support herself. She was snapped out of the shock by a noise outside the room. There were footsteps, some shuffling about and then the door to the stone room was opened, and a familiar voice said," Hello Valkyrie. I see you've met my friend."

_**xxxx**_

Ghastly sat rubbing his temples. Three of the Sanctuary's detectives, not exactly the brightest three, that had been chosen to work on this case had gathered together with the Elders to produce whatever evidence they had come up with on the case so far. But all of this evidence was getting them any further than they were at the start of the case. Ghastly glanced around the room and could see that his colleague, Erskine Ravel, looked equally as bored as Ghastly. The two men shared a glance for a second and Erskine faked a yawn in Ghastly's direction and Ghastly nodded back and did the same. Erskine stuck his tongue out and then straightened up and tried to fake looking interested. Ghastly raised an eyebrow and did the same. The always serene Madame Mist stood between the two men at the edge of the table in the Sanctuary's biggest conference room, her black veil hiding her true expression. Always mysterious, no one could really tell what she was thinking or whether she thought much at all... Ghastly shuddered. Such a woman could not be trusted, but she was on the Council of Elders and had proved herself trustworthy so far. So far... Ghastly snapped out of his daydream when one of the detectives asked him," What do you think Elder Bespoke?"

"Hm?" Ghastly asked, not having a clue about what was just said. He shot a worried look to Erskine, but Erskine just shrugged, looking equally puzzled. "Ahem," Ghastly shuffled his feet. "I need some time to think about it." He looked down at the table and blushed.

"It was a simple statement Elder Bespoke," the detective continued," obviously the kidnapper needs her for something important, not money, or else he would have asked for a ransom by now. So, what do you think?"

"Oh, er, well that appears to be true. Nice work detective...?"

"Detective Spark, Elder Bespoke."

"Ah, my apologies for my lack of attention before you asked me that question. I am rather tired and my brain seems unable to focus for very long." Ghastly sighed. Detective Spark nodded. He was a handsome man, shaggy brown hair, just a little past his ears, very think. Big bright, blue piercing eyes, and dimples on his cheeks. He was wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up just past his elbows, a plain black tie, black dungarees and plain black office trousers. He smiled and said," Well in that case, we should leave it at that for today. We will arrange another meeting as soon as we get more information." He rolled up whatever papers were of the desk in front of him, they looked like maps, and he picked up the several official looking case files he had brought with him and motioned for one of the other to detectives to open the door to let the Elders leave first. Each Elder thanked the detectives as they passed through the door and the detectives returned the thanks as they left to go back to their investigating. Ghastly was about to turn and walk with the other Elders when he noticed that Detective Spark had dropped one of the official looking case files. Ghastly picked it up and was about to shout after the detectives when something fell out of the file. It was a small slip of white paper. It floated face down to the ground, and Ghastly leant down to pick it up. He noticed the other Elders coming back towards him. He took one look at the piece of paper and he froze.

"Ghastly, what is it?"

Ghastly turned the piece of paper round so that the other two Elders could see what was on it. It was a small square of paper with a picture of a farmiliar looking face in the middle. Across the piece of paper were several words stamped in bold, red ink saying;

FIND HER, DESTROY HIM.

The three Elders stood in silence for a moment. Then Madame Mist broke the icy silence by saying," It's those detectives. We cannot trust them."

Ghastly stared down at the piece of paper, and the face of Valkyrie Cain stared back.

_**xxxx**_

_**Dun dun dun! I love cliff-hangers, don't you ;)? JJ xx**_


End file.
